Foreigners
Foreigners in Heidelberg
Hello, welcome to the homepage of the general practitioner, Drs./NL Albertus Arends and his practice-team. The practice is located on Brückenstr. 43 in Heidelberg. You can reach it by tram line 3 or 5: stop ‘Brückenstraße’, or by foot or by taxi.
The docters speak english fluently. Drs. Arends is born in the Netherlands, so the dutch language is also not a problem. Communication in other languages is possible, f.e. french, spanish, polish, russian, etc.
Nederlanders in Heidelberg
Welkom op onze praktijksite.
U bent gearriveerd op de website van onze huisartsenpraktijk in Heidelberg, adres: Brückenstr. 43 in de wijk Neuenheim. Van harte welkom, we hopen dat we u met deze webpagina’s kunnen informeren over onze praktijk.
Op 1 juli 2001 heb ik de huisartsenpraktijk van Dr.med. Ripke overgenomen. Daarvoor was ik huisarts in Bremen en in Seedorf. In Seedorf was ik een van de huisartsen in het Gezondheidscentrum Seedorf, gelocaliseerd op het kazerneterrein Seedorf en daarom vertrouwd met aangelegenheden betreffende plaatsing in het buitenland, NATO en uitzending.
The Heidelberg Shaman
As a representative of old-fashioned general medicine, I want to illustrate its importance. It’s a form of medicine that people often take for granted or even ignore—except when disasters strike, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In Germany, the general practitioner is still the first point of contact for the vast majority of people seeking medical help. In a quiet and modest way, general medicine remains at the frontline of human suffering every day of the week.
I have spent most of my professional life in this branch of medicine, in a general practice in the city, far removed from the headlines about the latest miracle drug or the latest bronzed celebrity surgeon.The work of a general practitioner in Germany is hectic and unglamorous, and the high workload can be exhausting and frustrating. Yet, despite all this, I believe there is an unspoken and unrecognized heroism in it. And it is possibly one of the last remnants (though not the only one) of a long tradition of “real” medicine—a kind of holistic approach to healthcare that has always aimed to treat both the person and their illness, within the context of their home, family, and community. What fascinates me most about this is the extraordinary human situations in which people (both doctors and patients) find themselves as a result of illness, especially sudden, unexpected illness. Medical life offers countless examples of such situations, producing stories like these: glimpses through the half-open doors of thousands of lives, revealing dramatic moments that are poignant, tragic, bizarre, or even comedic.
General practice is a long-term project. General practitioners must gradually build a picture of their patients and their backgrounds: by visiting them at home when they are sick, by treating other family members, by reviewing their medical records (which accompany them from birth), and by seeing them not only during illness but also for health concerns (during routine check-ups, health advice, and vaccinations). From all this, they must acquire a deep knowledge of a particular person and their family. To achieve this, it obviously helps to be embedded in a specific community, to be part of daily life and the local identity. Although this kind of continuity applies much more to rural practice than urban practice in Germany, I still often encounter my patients in the supermarket or on the street, as well as in the consultation room. Generally, they are more familiar with their general practitioner than with the super-young or gray-haired strangers who interview and examine them in the local hospital.
Primary care includes (or at least should include) understanding the beliefs of patients, how they perceive their bodies and how they think they became ill. Where possible, general practitioners should try to work within these beliefs to make their interventions as effective as possible. General practice is about understanding how illnesses can disturb not only the internal balance of a body but also the harmony of the patient’s relationships with the world they live in—and how treatment should address this. Therefore, it is not enough to treat a diseased organ; the goal should also be to restore the old balance in the patient’s life.
For many reasons, general practice itself seems to be in danger of drifting further away from its original roots—from that popular (though largely mythical) figure of the past: the old-fashioned family doctor with their kindly face and little bag, visiting the sick on winter nights and traveling through snowstorms or downpours with horse and cart. Instead, it is becoming an imitation of hospital medicine. Under constant pressure from bureaucracy, cost efficiency, rushed consultations, fear of lawsuits, a decline in home visits, and other factors, it seems almost impossible for a general practitioner to remain both competent and dedicated.
Unfortunately, there is still an increasing trend of underpayment, fragmentation, and erosion of general practitioners’ skills. Nowadays, it’s almost impossible to find staff for a general practice, even though it is a very rewarding and fulfilling job.
All these factors will one day lead to patients being shocked to discover that their trusted general practitioner is no longer there.
(Text from „Suburban Shaman- tales from medicine’s frontline“, author Cecil Helman adapted by AA on 31.08.2024)
Drs./NL Albertus Arends Specialist in General Medicine, Lecturer/ assistent Professor at the University of Heidelberg, Deputy Chairman of the Heidelberg Medical Association Heidelberg